6. The Man of Sin¶
The Christians in Thessalonica had been deeply impressed both by Paul’s teaching when he was with them, and by his letter addressed to them later. The good news of the historical fact of Jesus and the meaning of His death on the Cross had reached them through the apostle, who had immediately proceeded to give them instructions concerning His personal return. The two truths went together in his ministry amongst them as he reminds them at the end of the first chapter: “For they themselves shew of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God; and to wait for His Son from heaven, Who He raised from the dead, Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.” The truth that Jesus was coming back again from heaven was given to these people at the same time as the truth of His Cross at His first coming and when they were converted they turned right away from their idols and fixed their hope in His coming again. One would suppose that all who claim to have the apostolic succession would reveal that succession in correspondence of witness, but it is one of the peculiar twists of modern religion that you prove your discipleship of Jesus and your succession of the apostles by flatly denying what they have declared or by saying they meant something altogether different, or were benighted by sharing the Jewish apocalyptic of their time. And should you not have been ordained by a bishop, then no matter how closely you keep to the Scriptures your ministry is invalid. When one perceives that the apostolic succession is preserved in the ministry of the Holy Spirit through whomsoever He wills then one sees that He, in His sovereignty, would never condescend to be bound by any human organisation.
Paul therefore taught them the truth that the Saviour Who had died for them and who was raised from the dead, the historical Jesus, was coming again from heaven. He declared it, indeed, with such emphasis that the people were tempted to be careless about many present duties as they felt His coming was so near. In the second epistle Paul corrects this attitude. He does not say they have misunderstood him as to the fact of our Lord’s return, but he is equally clear that that day has not yet come. He seizes the opportunity, not only of declaring that it had not arrived but that ere it could be manifested there was to be another manifestation. He then unveiled to them a sinister figure arising out of the spread of apostacy and he names him “that Man of sin … the Son of perdition,” 1 a Judas. Nearly two thousand years have passed since Paul wrote those words and therefore with every year that comes the interest in his prophecy increases. Notice then that the Apostle does not view the progress of truth as one of unbroken attainment until the world shall be Christian. So far from that there was to be an apostacy, a falling away from the truth on the part of those who had received it. Churches would have an outward profession of truth but their testimony would be one of error. That which men would think to be the very instrument of God would decline from its high calling and serve the ends of time rather than the purpose of eternity. “The love of the many shall grow cold,” 2 a situation all too real in our midst today when Christianity garbs itself in principles and devices, but seldom rejoices in love towards the Lord Who has redeemed us in His precious blood. That apostacy, that declension from truth, that coldness of heart on the part of professing adherents would be the seed ground for an ominous manifestation and incarnation of evil. Our Lord implied this when He asked: “Nevertheless when the Son of Man cometh shall He find the faith on the earth?” 3 If we are to believe the testimony of the religious press in general then the truth is being sifted from the error of the past and the very cream of faith is being preserved. Part of the error, of course, being this very idea that He is returning again! Yet what is the picture? Our Lord shewed how great a part prayer occupied in His life. Your modern church and its adherents have so many interests to serve that it is impossible to find a place for a prayer meeting, and if the time could be found few if any would attend. Preaching is concerned with the things of the earth and nobody would suppose that human beings are facing eternity determined by issues that centre in Calvary. Our Lord’s present glory is relegated to the silence, while the truth that the Holy Spirit lives in the body of the believer is never touched upon. The masses of Christendom are evidently not reading their Bibles else they would see these truths in the Word and begin to ask that they should be preached. Then like so many theological wolves, preying upon those who have had any kind of religious experience, there are a host of cults living on the stragglers of our churches. Christian Science, Theosophy, Russellism, Spiritism all thrive upon the perpetual ravages they make on people who once came inside our churches and chapels. This is the background of apostacy making possible the merging in human society of the sinister figure who in God’s sight is the Man of Sin but who will doubtless be hailed as the leader of a religion that appeals to sensible men.
His origin is clearly stated. It is “according to Satan.” 4 He proceeds out of the abyss and is Satan’s imitation of supernatural incarnation. The Scriptures, therefore, unveil a stupendous fact in this respect. Heaven is preparing for the manifestation of the Christ of Calvary now glorified. Hell is preparing the manifestation of this sinister figure who will possibly be Satan himself incarnate. The wreckage of faith and confidence in the Word of God will give Satan his opportunity. If men were to keep close to the Word they would not be deceived. Hence before this can be accomplished there must be a campaign to undermine all confidence in the Word of God. Very few young people today are trained in the churches to test any proposal or situation by waiting upon God that the Holy Spirit may guide them through the Word of Scripture. Once this defence is broken down, the plans of Satan will speedily be brought to an issue. This man when he emerges, will have no difficulty in taking a foremost place in the affairs of men and we may expect that his power over the masses will be hypnotic. Indeed Paul declares so quite plainly. His coming will be ”after the working of Satan with all power and signs and wonders that lie.” The peoples of the earth will be staggered by his uncanny intelligence and remarkable power. In Revelation 13 he is called the Beast. There we are told that “all the world wondered after the Beast.” He will apparently be invincible, for the masses enquire who will make war with him. The same chapter makes it clear that he is to have control of commerce, for none will be able to buy or sell save those that have his mark 5 upon them. A few years ago, of course, infidels and Bible critics would have united to have declared that such ideas were preposterous. Today they are silent, for they know that in a very wonderful way these things are appearing and operating in human experience. In his letter to the Thessalonians, however, Paul stresses his religious activities. He will be worshipped and will be welcomed by the Jews as their Messiah. How significant are those words of our Lord: “I am come in My Father’s Name, Me ye will not receive. Another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive.” 6 In Germany today it is dangerous to say that Jesus is the Saviour of the world. There is only one man capable of doing that now and he controls the Reich.
Now this mystery of lawlessness was perceived by Paul as already working. To his Spirit enlightened eye the activity was apparent even by A.D. 50! Until the Lord returned it would continue and increase. Modern inventions appear to be most suitable for this great Satanic campaign of mesmerising the masses. The radio, television, aviation, a controlled press are all possible instruments for this man when the hour strikes. His accession to power would be exceptionally rapid but for one fact, a hindrance in his way, not easily overcome. There is one who hinders and will continue to do so until he be taken out of the way. Who is the one who hinders? 7 Some think that Paul is referring to the Roman empire with its splendid legal system. It was because he was referring to the ruling power, so it is argued, that he dare not mention it by name. In effect the apostle is declaring that the laws of Rome, enshrined as they are in a country like England, will be a preservative against unbridled outbreak of lawlessness in the world. That may be the correct explanation. It may, perhaps, be part of the explanation. One of the subtle weaknesses of those who study the teaching of prophecy is perhaps to fasten down a statement to one interpretation when possibly it embraces many. In this case another interpretation is possible. The hindrance may be the Holy Spirit working through the true company of the Lord’s redeemed, and if this is so then when the church is removed the hindrance to the power of Satan will thus be withdrawn and his work will be made manifest. There is no doubt that the witness of the church is a restraining factor. If the people in this country have not accepted Christ they have, consciously or unconsciously, been influenced by the gospel. In some countries where Rome holds sway, girls unaccompanied are unsafe in the street, for religion as people know it, has brought no moral uplift. The influence of evangelical Christianity has been altogether different from that, and although its agencies and meeting places may be despised and the gospel of the grace of God in salvation through the blood may be the subject of jest, yet where men and women have been born again new influences have radiated. The church therefore, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, is most certainly a definite hindrance and indeed the foremost barrier to the work of Satan in the world. “When the enemy comes in like a flood the Spirit of the Lord shall set up a banner against him.” 8 That flood activity seems to be very apparent today. Satan is definitely seeking to drive a wedge in between professing Christianity and the Word of God. He is chilling the hearts of Christians, and in our churches stifling the one activity of prayer by which the church can triumph. Similarly, he is educating the masses to look more and more to individual men to lead them. A great country like Germany is prostrate at the heel of Hitler. It would be untrue to say that he holds the people down by brute force. Rather he controls them by hypnotic power so that the masses are mesmerised to the point almost of worship. Let the reader who has lost touch with the Bible ponder these things. He will inevitably ask himself what is that element in the Scriptures that causes them to be such a mirror of the modern world? How was Paul able to look into the future with such unerring insight? When the questions are asked there will be but one answer. The Scriptures are the truth of God.
As Paul presents the Man of Sin to the Thessalonians he is a formidable figure indeed. He is Satan’s answer to the purpose of God in Christ, and while men are occupied with the politics of the earth he will be seeking through apostacy to manifest himself, but will be hindered by the Holy Spirit through the Lord’s Body of the church. This is the issue amongst men and of which they are quite ignorant. His influence upon the masses will be remarkable; for they will be completely deluded by him. In every realm, religious, political, commercial he will command their admiration and fear. His position will be unique. He will be the antichrist of whom John speaks, and while at first he will be favourable to the Jews or appear to be so, he will nevertheless prove to be their enemy when they are back in their land. He will be the instrument of the oppression and persecution to which reference was made in a previous chapter. He is the leader destined to gather the nations together against the Lord’s chosen people and, as we have seen, his purpose will almost succeed. Satan’s incarnation is to be crushed by God’s Beloved Son. “And then shall that wicked one be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming.” 9 This outstanding man in world affairs, greater than any of the great warriors of the past, greater than the politicians of the past, wielding a might and power in human society which makes his name to be on everybody’s lips and his every movement day by day the concern of the masses, this outstanding man is destined to be brought to his end by the Lord Christ Himself. He who has mesmerised the world and struck terror into the hearts of all who dare oppose him will be instantly mastered, conquered and consumed by the Lord of glory at His appearing. These facts are very instructive. The image, which is man’s great effort to achieve greatness is destined to be swept away like chaff. The Man of Sin, Satan’s great effort against God and His church, is destined to be consumed and destroyed by the breath of His mouth. It means that it is the collapse of all the devices of Satan for ruling the world in rebellion against God’s Beloved Son. He may be far in the future or he may already be a name on the earth. We cannot tell, and speculation is no part of the work of the Holy Spirit. He does not lead us into speculation but into truth. Our concern is to observe that dictatorship is emerging in a new form in the world, and it would seem as if democratic government as we have known it will recede into history. Even the democratic nations are being forced into certain lines of action by reason of the dictators. What the outcome will be none can tell, but this is very clear: nobody would now scoff at the idea of a world dictator arising to direct and control the affairs of men. It is one of those strange paradoxes that men are now affirming that if democracy is to preserve its liberties and survive then it must surrender some of those liberties for the sake of the greater end. Dictator states move quickly. By a stroke of the pen decrees come into force that could only operate after much negotiation in a democratic country. And if the dictators move swiftly by decrees can the democracies afford to move slowly by means of endless negotiation? Experience is proving that they cannot. Increasingly they are finding that they must think and act quickly and ever more quickly, and with acceleration of decision comes the diminution of the democratic principle. Verily the iron and clay are being seen in Europe today. For the child of God, however, these are subsidiary issues. The crisis lies in another direction. Deception and counterfeit have ever been the instruments of Satan, and the concern of the child of God is to know how to live proof against deception. The apostle gives us the answer. The world will be deceived because “they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.” 10 It is a significant fact that in God’s view man’s love of the truth is tested by his attitude to the gospel of grace in salvation. Truth begins at the feet of Jesus in repentance for sin and in humble acceptance of the salvation He has wrought by His Blood. A man must love the truth if he is to be saved from the lie. He must love the truth not as it appeals to him but as God reveals it. He must love the truth above all else and step into it with courage and devotion. Love for the truth begins at Calvary, and henceforth the believer who has found the truth of Calvary in the Word of God must search the Scriptures daily and diligently to know the truth of God for himself as applied to his own circumstances. Deliverance from falsehood requires that the mind shall be permeated with the Scriptures, saturated with the truth of God so that in every situation the Spirit of God can direct it towards some revelation of the Word that shall meet the need and be capable of application. It is not the snipping of a text from a calendar or even the taking of a promise from a box, however helpful that may be, it is the distilling of the truth of the Word in the heart so that by the Spirit the light and love of God may be a daily experience. It means no less that every bit of truth God gives must be acted upon immediately. We lose so much because we linger in disobedience. We see a truth but we defer to act upon it, and in delaying we miss it and the blessing is lost. If only we would remember that every time we let a truth slip we give ground to falsehood and the lie we should be much more careful. Every moment of our lives we are stepping into the truth or into the lie, and when the Spirit shews a truth from the Word we need quickly and gladly to step into it. Only so can we walk in the light as He is in the light. No doubt our manner of life will seem strange to the worldling, and that this is so should cause us no surprise. When we see how the wisdom of the world is destined to end we ought to be most thankful to God that in His mercy He has opened our eyes to the truth in Christ, and our one desire should be to press on in the truth of God that we may by all means escape the lie of Satan. Believers have great need to recognise that the Scriptures now so frequently criticised, challenged and refuted are the one instrument the Spirit of God can use to preserve them against the wiles and deceptions of the hour in which we live. Voices are reaching out to us from the past declaring that antiquity confirms the truth of the Word of God. The believer will know from his own experience the present testimony of the Holy Spirit in his heart, for the Spirit beareth witness with our spirit that we are the sons of God. 11 All this should encourage the believer in simple faith to lay hold on the Word, to meditate therein day and night and to walk in humble obedience to its revelation. We shall walk in clear distinction from the world. Our pleasures will be different, our politics will be different, our purpose will be different and our end will be different. “For this cause God shall send them strong delusion, and they shall believe the lie; that they all might be judged who believing not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” 12 That is a solemn word of warning. Those who have deliberately rejected the truth of God will be swept into the vortex of the lies of the Man of Sin, not only by his deceptions but by the deluding judgments of God. It is a serious contemplation indeed that if men persist in loving the lie God will withdraw from them every prospect of escaping from it.
In such circumstances of delusion and lying the stage for the Man of Sin will be set, and the one protection will be the Spirit of God indwelling the believer, leading him into all the truth of the Word of God. If you see that fact, be sure you make it the rule for your life to wait upon God, to meditate upon His word and to be quick to obey the impellings of His Spirit. 13